Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Central Planning, Government Gone Wild, Transportation and Infrastructure on Jul 21st, 2015
On p. 359 of Cadillac Desert: Another drawback was that the reservoir would drown an Indian Reservation and the town of Covelo — population two thousand — but that sort of thing had been done many times before. (The Corps had included the flooding of the reservation in its benefit-cost analysis, but had it down as […]
Posted in Central Planning, Government Gone Wild, Transportation and Infrastructure on Jul 21st, 2015
From another passage in Cadillac Desert (p 351, I updated the dollar figures to today), on a dud-project known as the Peripheral Canal: “the correct figure, for capital costs only and accepting official estimates, is certainly in excess of $3 billion.” Three billion dollars in 1959 is over $24 billion today. What state would vote for a […]
Posted in Central Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure on Jul 21st, 2015
From p.349 of Cadillac Desert: “I loved building things,” he blurted in an unguarded moment of candor. “I wanted to build that goddamned water project. I was absolutely determined I was going to pass this California Water Project. I wanted this to be a monument to me.“ That was former California Governor Pat Brown, father of Jerry.
Posted in Development on Jul 21st, 2015
From a speech given by Normal Borlaug many years ago: The most conservative man in traditional agriculture is the scientist, and sometimes I am not proud to be one of them. This is most discouraging. The scientist is a privileged person, the man who should lead us out of the wilderness of the static, underproductive […]